Paris: Super Bowl's return to New Orleans reminds some of the big queasy

San Diego's Jim Steeg, a former NFL and Chargers executive, helped produce 26 Super Bowls. His biggest challenge came at Super Bowl XXXVI, soon after the 9/11 attacks. The Super Bowl returns to New Orleans on Sunday for the first time since that game.
— UNION-TRIBUNE FILE

San Diego's Jim Steeg, a former NFL and Chargers executive, helped produce 26 Super Bowls. His biggest challenge came at Super Bowl XXXVI, soon after the 9/11 attacks. The Super Bowl returns to New Orleans on Sunday for the first time since that game.
/ UNION-TRIBUNE FILE

Welcome to Super Bowl XXXVI, the last time the NFL's grand game landed in New Orleans.

On Sunday the Super Bowl returns, the eighth time the contest comes with side dishes of gumbo and jambalaya

But in 2002 for SB XXXVI, Jim Steeg was a jumble of nerves.

“Remember it was right after 9/11,'' Steeg said.

Which meant the game came with a tsunami of security concerns. Many of which clogged Steeg's to-do list, as the NFL's lead executive in all things Super Bowl.

Steeg, of San Diego, rattles off the issues, which ranged from anxiety attacks to anthrax scares. He cited the cascade of problems that few thought could be overcome, after the game was postponed a week because of 9/11.

New Orleans almost lost the Super Bowl, with Pasadena and Miami on standby. But to the indefatigable Steeg, the game had to go on, and it did.

It was a challenging, scary time and it was proved when McCartney appeared for a game-day morning rehearsal.

The man who crooned, “Love, love me do” got little affection from the Secret Service. It was entrusted to protect President George W. Bush's afternoon arrival.

“The Secret Service wouldn't let him in until they patted him down,'' Steeg said. “I mean, it's Paul McCartney. But he got patted down.''

We pat Steeg on the back for a job well done, one that stands out among his 26 seasons as the NFL's super head honcho.

Every year came with quirks, many unfolding far from the countless cameras covering the game.

Like when Michael Jackson, who performed at Super Bowl XXVII, had to told what the Super Bowl actually was.

“He really didn't know what we were talking about,'' Steeg said. “He knew about football, but not the magnitude of the Super Bowl.

“But the light went off when we told him it would be broadcast in 180 countries. He said, 'OK, I get this.'''

Or when Diana Ross at SB XXX exited the field via a helicopter.

Or when Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction at SB XXXVIII created a stir which still resonates.

“I was not a happy,'' Steeg said of her disrobing. “Here I thought Janet Jackson was the safest part of that halftime show. I thought Kid Rock or P. Diddy might be more problematic.''

But the obstacles of guaranteeing national anthem singers are on cue, that halftime stages are interchanged quickly, that the post-game confetti falls at precisely the right moment, pale in producing SB XXXVI.

It was anything but the big easy.

The show behind the show was a massive undertaking, and it all fell under Steeg's oversized umbrella.

“Hey, I never had rain at one of my Super Bowls,'' said Steeg, who had left the NFL before soggy SB XLIV in Miami.

The vise which the Super Bowl has on America – it is a national holiday, right? – will be evident Sunday. While looking ahead to the 49ers-Ravens scuffle, time will be spent reflecting on the Crescent City's last Super Bowl in 2002.

The one with tanks in the streets and snipers on building ledges. The one with magnetometers at entrances and water trucks behind the Superdome, poised to rinse a stadium of spectators if coming under a chemical attack.

“It was such a tough week because if you remember back in those days everyone was afraid to fly and having people congregate in big buildings,'' Steeg said. “And we had the combination of the two.

“But we wanted it to be the safest place on the planet. We had an obligation to make sure that it was a success. “Because if it failed, the country would have stayed in the recession. The Super Bowl is a very important element of our country.''

With the nation's psyche in play, Steeg and staff presented a Super Bowl long to be remembered – on that Sunday and this one.

Steeg thinks of everything, but he couldn't script the SB XXXVI winner. With the U.S. and world watching, it was appropriate the Patriots prevailed.

“I have a great attachment to the New Orleans and the people there,'' Steeg said. “To me the greatest accomplishment I had was Super Bowl XXXVI.''